Another Opportunity
by BrenRenQoI
Summary: Another missing scene fic from Window of Opportunity.
1. Chapter 1

Another Opportunity

By Bren Ren

-o-o-o-

Summary: Missing scene from Window of Opportunity

Authors note: Thanks to the Ship Family challenge at Gateworld for inspiring this little piece. And just when I thought the muse was comatose for good. Go figure!

-o-o-o-

"So what do you think?"

Jack paused and groaned through the mouthful of Fruit Loops. He stood up abruptly, and then to everyone's surprise, he grabbed Sam by the arm, jerking her up to her feet.

"Sir?" She asked, startled.

"Come with me, please, Carter." It was not a request, but not quite an order.

Sam frowned but nodded her head slightly and let him guide her out of the mess hall. To her utter confusion, he led her to the nearest supply closet and jerked her inside, shutting the door behind them.

There wasn't much space in the small room, most of it being lined with full shelves of linens and cleaning supplies. Sam felt Jack pushing into her from head to toe and she swallowed hard against a sudden lump in her throat.

"Do you trust me?" His voice was low, almost growling. Confusion still apparent on her face, Sam nodded. "I'm gonna tell you something crazy, and you are the only one who's going to believe me."

Sam glanced around through the darkness. "We are standing in a supply closet."

"Just listen!" Jack emphasized his words by placing his finger to her lips. "Teal'c and I are stuck in a time loop."

"A time loop?" she asked, incredulous.

"Every six hours, time loops back to a few minutes ago and everyone forgets everything that happened. It's been looping for days, at least, maybe even weeks now."

"But how—"

"There's a device on the planet we're about to check out. But that's not important. Look, we've been stuck looping for forever now, and Teal'c and I are both going a little… stir crazy. We needed to take a few loops off."

"What do you mean by take a few loops off?"

"We have been helping Daniel translate the symbols from that device. I think we've gotten two sentences done. I might even be fluent in Ancient by the time we're done with this. But I need a break. Had to get some sleep, for one thing. And Daniel pointed out something very interesting about this whole stuck in a time loop thing."

Sam shook her head, trying to keep up while simultaneously contemplating just how "time looping" could actually happen. "There are a lot of interesting—"

"No consequences, Sam." When he finished that sentence, his lips were but a few inches away from her mouth. Sam was having a very hard time concentrating now, but that didn't stop her brain from whirling away at the speed of light.

"No consequences?" It occurred to her that her side of this conversation had been remarkably dull, as all she had done was to echo his words.

"Everything resets, everyone forgets."

"Everyone but you and Teal'c." She frowned as she carried that thought forward to the next. "I forget." Jack nodded, his eyes closing in a wince. "Then what exactly is the point?"

"This," he replied, as he brought his lips crashing down onto hers. His lips were warm and tender, but firm in coaxing hers open; his tongue thrust into her mouth, nearly devouring her with passionate strokes.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. She was utterly breathless.

"No consequences," he repeated. He brought one hand up to cup her jaw. She looked into his eyes through the dim light seeping into the room. They were dark and nearly unfathomable. Would've been, except she could feel the evidence in his body of the desire she saw there in his eyes.

"What exactly did you have in mind, sir?" She hated the fact that she sounded as breathless as she felt.

"Why don't we take this off the base—and out of this little room," he added, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her in impossibly closer to him. He dropped his head down to swoop her lips up in another breath-stealing embrace before he stepped back. "Five minutes. Meet me in the garage." She nodded, not trusting her voice. Jack half turned and opened the closet door, slipping out stealthily. Sam pulled the door closed, staying in the closet a few moments longer to gather her senses and equilibrium about her.

Pretty certain she was crazy for doing it, she opened the door and prepared to make her way to the garage, taking just a moment to phone in a weak excuse to General Hammond as to why she suddenly needed to leave the base just before a mission briefing.

Several minutes later, she was in the garage beside Jack's sturdy green truck. He opened the passenger door for her, closing it once she was seated inside. He got in and started the truck without a word.

"I know you're a man of action more over words, but would you mind telling me where we're going?"

"I know a place… not too far, nice and private." He pulled a pair of sunglasses out of a compartment in the dashboard and put them on. Sam turned her eyes to the road and let him drive in silence. After a short trip up and down some significant hills, she found he had led her out to a cabin in the woods. They got out of the truck in silence. Jack walked up to the door and retrieved a key from under the doormat. He opened the door and gestured Sam inside.

"Belongs to a friend. He's out of town for a while," he said by way of explanation. Sam just nodded, taking in her surroundings. Jack took off his sunglasses, setting them on a small table near the door as he shut it.

The cabin had two rooms, one a kitchen and living room combined, one a bedroom she could see through the open door leading into it. The living room area was modestly furnished, and it definitely wanted a woman's touch. Even the curtains were plaid flannel, the couch a soft-looking brown suede piece with a plaid blanket thrown across it.

"No consequences, hm?" Sam finally commented. "So what exactly did you have in mind here?" she asked.

"We've been dancing around this subject for years," Jack said slowly, "and I just thought maybe we should give it a little more room to breathe in."

"You want to talk? About—" she gestured between them, "—this?" Her eyes were widening at the thought.

Jack steeled himself for what he was sure was imminent rejection. "You don't? You really don't want to talk about—" he mimicked her gesture, "—this?"

"I'm just surprised you do." Sam sighed and sat down on the couch. "And I guess I'm not sure I really do, either. That's why I said we could leave it in the room… after the za'tarc interrogations."

"But you're here now."

"Yes, I am. I'm not sure about that, either," she said with a short, bittersweet laugh. "It's funny, out in the field, I couldn't be more sure of myself, but when it comes to matters of the heart, I always find a way to chicken out."

Jack smiled gently as he sat down on the couch beside her. "And yet, you're still here."

"Could you tell me why?" Her question was sincere, and Jack wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and give her all the answers she asked for. He sighed. If only it were that easy. Then, remembering "no consequences", he gave into his urge, slinking one arm around her shoulders and easing her back into his embrace. His other hand found her face, his thumb absently stroking her cheek as her eyes fluttered, fighting to stay open.

So close to him now, and with full daylight shining on them through the window, she could see his eyes in fascinating detail. They were a warm chocolate brown, with flecks of gold near the irises. She could actually see his pupils dilating as he brought her face closer to hers, to a point where she was blocking the sun from his eyes. They seemed to suddenly grow dark with that action, two twin pools of inky black, deeper than she could ever have imagined. She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly feeling quite dry.

"I think it had something to do with this," Jack finally said as he brought his mouth to hers once more. This time his kiss was slow, leisurely even, and he was careful to explore every exquisite detail of her mouth. Sam couldn't help but to respond, and by the time his tongue flicked out to her lips, she opened for him easily and without thought.

They kissed for a long while; it could have been an eternity, for all they could tell by the time they parted for air. Sam ran her fingers through his hair, ruffling the short locks in a way she had long wanted to do.

"I think I like this 'no consequences' thing," she mused aloud. Jack grinned back at her.

"I told ya," he replied.

"But I thought you wanted to talk?"

"Talking is over-rated." Jack moved in to kiss her again, but Sam pulled back just out of his reach.

"If we don't stop and talk now, I'm afraid we never will, and I for one don't want to let this opportunity slip through our fingers," Sam told him sternly.

Jack sighed, running his own hand through his thoroughly ruffled hair. "All right. Talk. We can do that."

Sam nodded, then scooted down the couch out of his embrace. "Maybe some distance would be wise right now." Jack gave her a side-long glance. "Otherwise I don't think we'll be able to stop that other thing we were doing so well," she finished with a rather impudent grin.

"You're not making this talking thing easy," he growled.

"Never said it would be. In spite of my sometimes lengthy explanations regarding the latest technology we've gotten our hands on, I'm not so great at this talking thing either. I tend to say way too much."

"Yeah, I've noticed. But I've had some practice at stopping you when you start getting carried away, you know."

"I'm counting on that." Jack nodded, reaching out a hand to her. She looked at his outstretched hand for a moment before taking it with her own. "So…"

"So… I just want to say, for the record, that I don't think we should have been so quick to lock everything up in that room after the za'tarc testing. We should have talked."

Sam blinked twice before dipping her head down, tearing her eyes from his gaze. "Okay. I just thought maybe it would be easier that way."

"Easier, yes. But not necessarily the right thing to do."

Sam nodded in acknowledgement. "And now you want to have some kind of official talk that I won't even remember?"

"Maybe I want some practice so that if I screw this up big time, it won't be the end of the world." Jack looked at her for a moment before wincing. "That sounded incredibly selfish, even to me."

"Yes, it is. Did you even stop to think about how I'd feel about it?"

"Honestly, no, not at first. Didn't think it through at all. It took me a few loops to get a simple kiss out of you without you decking me!"

Sam laughed softly. "How did you finally managed it? The storage closet?"

"No. Actually, it was the control room. Right there in front of Hammond and everybody. A crowning moment, really. I turned in my resignation, grabbed you and laid one on you for all I was worth. Which, I know, isn't that much… but, you responded. It was a couple loops after that that I decided to try getting you off base."

Sam shook her head. "You're pretty unbelievable, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know. You want to deck me again?"

Sam shook her head again. "No. But I'm glad you decided to talk to me about it this time."

"You are? Even though you won't remember?"

"Who knows, maybe I'll retain some sort of subconscious impression of this conversation. Stranger things have happened."

"If only Daniel could retain a conscious impression of all the Ancient we've translated so far. Would save us a lot of time," Jack mused wryly.

"But then you might never have gotten here," Sam retorted with a squeeze of his hand. "And I'm very glad you did."

"Again, you are?" His surprise was genuine.

"Yes, I am," she replied with a laugh. "But I'm afraid there will be consequences. Even if I won't remember, you will. Everything we say, anything we do… you'll remember it all. I want to make sure you remember the right things." Sam paused and took a deep breath. "I want you to know that there are certain compromises I am simply not willing to make. I don't want to leave SG-1. That's all there is to it." She paused again, this time to give him a moment to digest the seriousness of her words. "That being said… we'd be fools to let a once in a lifetime opportunity like this slip through our hands." With her words, she entwined her fingers through his. "You brought me here for a reason, didn't you?"

"I did." He too paused for her to digest the full meaning of his brief words. "I want to make love with you."

"I came here for a reason, too," she said with a smile. "How much time do we have left?"

He glanced at his watch. "Four hour, fifty three minutes—" He was silenced by her mouth, quite suddenly covering his. Her mouth was hot and hungry over his, her tongue dueling with him in mind-blowing fashion. Just when he thought he was completely lost, she ripped herself away from him again.

"If we do this, Jack, if we go all the way," she said with finality in her voice, "we have to go all the way. Not now. But eventually. This has its consequences. It has too. There's too much between us for some meaningless roll in the—"

Jack cut her off. "It means everything. And when you forget, one day, when the time is right, I'll make you remember every last detail."

Sam stared at him for a long moment. "You'd better," she vowed. "Or there will be consequences. I promise you that."

"So, someday, we'll take this to its natural conclusion?" Jack asked after a beat.

"Someday, we will. For right now, we both know that's what we want. Eventually. For now there are more important things." Sam was surprised at how even her voice was when her blood was boiling so hot.

"And right now, there are more important things. Clock's ticking, Sam." Jack reached up to clasp her face in both hands.

She smiled. "I'm talking too much again, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," he agreed as he pulled her face toward his.

"This is real?" Sam asked quizzically.

"As real as it gets, for another four hours, forty four minutes…" She laughed into his mouth as he brought her mouth back to his once more. In a heart beat they were lost in their kisses, the world around them forgotten. All too soon, the world would flash white and she'd be taken away from him again, but for a moment, they had each other. It would be something for him to hold on to in the cold lonely nights ahead.


	2. Consequences

Consequences

By Bren Ren

-o-o-o-

His mouth was hot on hers, so very hot, and his hands were wrapped around her strong and firm. She felt herself being tipped backward, so she slipped her hands up around his neck and hung on for dear life. All the while, his mouth remained fastened on hers, fierce and demanding at the same time as it was remarkable tender. He teased her lips with his tongue, and she darted her own out to taste him—

A white flash enveloped them and it was suddenly over, gone as if it never happened.

Sam awoke with a start. She blinked a few times in the dark room. She assessed her situation with military precision. She was home, in her room, in her bed. It had been a dream. Nothing more.

And yet, it was so real. So very real that Sam realized she woke up sweating, her sheets and blankets kicked to the floor. She suddenly shivered in the cool air of her room.

She did not have dreams like that. Not about him, especially. Those were absolutely forbidden, for he was absolutely off-limits. And yet, for the past few weeks, she had been having dreams, oh so very dangerous dreams, of her commanding officer. Kissing him. And more. At least this one stopped at the mind-blowing kissing, she mused with a sigh.

And so, there she was, shaking in her bed from the most vivid dream she could ever recall having. A dream so real, it was more like… a memory, she realized. A voice rang in her head, Daniel's voice. "I mean, you could do anything without worrying about consequences." And then a face flashed before her eyes. Jack O'Neill, with that smug little grin that wouldn't quit.

Sam groaned, flopping back down on her bed. She rolled to one side and punched her pillow for good measure. She then happened to glance at the clock and realized she had less than an hour of sleep left. She turned off the alarm, got out of bed and made for the shower. Looks like another day in early to work, she thought wryly.

As she showered she wondered what she should do about these recurring dreams. Or memories, or whatever they were. Should she confront the Colonel? Did she really want to know? How would it affect their working relationship? And how could he do something like that when she wouldn't even have the benefit of remembering it properly?

In fact, she knew she shouldn't retain any memories from the whole time-loop experience of late. Everyone's memories but the Colonel's and Teal'c's were erased every time the loop reset. She again found herself wondering just how long they had been stuck in that weird time-warp and how they managed to keep from going crazy.

Again, Daniel's voice popped into her head. "Let me ask you something, in all the time you were ... um ... looping, were you ever tempted to ... uh ... um ... do something crazy?"

And again, that smugly grinning Colonel flashed in her mind's eye. Yes, she needed to confront the Colonel. But all she wanted to know was whether or not these 'dreams' were real or just the product of an overly frustrated imagination. How she'd manage that without giving away the full extent of her knowledge, she wasn't sure. She knew she'd have to tread carefully. Resolved, Sam stepped out of the shower. She got dressed and picked up her cell phone, slowly dialing the Colonel's number, pausing to sigh and screw up her courage, then hitting the send button.

The phone rang for a long time. Sam started to think of something to say on his voice mail, when he picked up at the last moment.

"O'Neill," he barked.

"Sir, it's me," she greeted.

"Carter? Awful early on a Saturday morning," he said by way of return greeting. "Briefing isn't even for another couple of hours."

"Yes, sir, I know," Sam replied. She slowly sucked in a lungful of air, then asked him, "Sir, could we meet somewhere before we go in?"

"Something wrong?" Jack asked, suddenly on full alert.

"Not exactly, but I need to talk to you about… something. It's a conversation I'd very much prefer not to have on base."

"Why don't you come on over, then? Here's as good as any place."

Sam frowned, not expecting an invitation to his house. She mulled it over quickly and decided he was right, it was as good as any place. At least it would be private, which is just what she preferred for this talk.

"All right. I'll be there in fifteen minutes," she told him evenly.

"I'll put some coffee on," he offered.

"Sounds great. See you in a few," Sam finished, pushing the end button before she lost all her courage and chickened out.

This time it was Jack's voice that was ringing in her head. "You know, you've asked me that before." And again, that damn smug little grin flashed before her. Sam closed her eyes in quiet resolve. Time to get those questions answered, she told herself as she left the house.

A short drive later, she found herself sitting parked in Jack's driveway, again doing everything she knew to bolster her courage. She knew she needed to get moving, get out of her car and talk to the Colonel, but she sat nearly paralyzed in front of his house. Every dream she'd had the last few weeks kept playing out in her mind as she drove over here, and to her utter dismay, she found herself terribly, horribly aroused. She wasn't sure how she could face him, how she could ask him if he had, if they had… if those dreams had any basis in reality.

She saw Jack sneak a peak out one of his windows and knew it was time to move. Somehow she convinced her nearly trembling body to cooperate, and before she was fully aware of what she was doing, she was standing at his doorstep. The door opened before she had a chance to knock.

"Hey," he greeted her. He took a long hard look at her, staring her up and down, taking in her wide open eyes, her slightly flushed cheeks, the slightly quicker than normal up and down heaving of her chest. He knew almost instantly that she was nervous about whatever had brought her to his door, but he didn't quite dare believe the desire he thought he saw flare in her eyes as he brought his own back up to meet her gaze.

"Come in," he offered her, standing aside so she could enter his dwelling. When she stood still in the hallway glancing about, Jack ushered her back towards his kitchen. "Coffee?" Sam nodded mutely. Jack left her side and set about the busy work of fixing a couple of cups. He finished and guided her into the dining room, motioning for her to sit beside him. She moved without a word, taking a long slow sip of her drink as she sat down.

"Mmm, good," she finally said. "Much better than you usually make—off world, that is," she said with a smile.

"Thanks, I think," he said with a small smile back at her. "So what brings you over here to my humble abode?" he finally asked her.

"I've been having these… recurring dreams. Well, they seem more like recurring memories, but… as far as I know, the events of these dreams haven't actually happened. And yet, they seem so real, I can't quite manage to dismiss them the way I probably should." Sam had kept her eyes averted from his during this little speech, but she finally braved glancing over at him.

"Recurring dreams? What kind of dreams?"

Sam paused. She really wanted to avoid telling him exactly what kind of dreams she'd been having. "Well, like I said, they seem more like memories,"

"Another holdover from Jolinar?"

"I don't think so. If it were Jolinar's memories I was dealing with, they wouldn't involve you."

"Involve me how?"

Sam paused again, hoping she could continue to dance around the subject without being too explicit. "Sir, when you were stuck in that time loop… Daniel asked you if you had done anything crazy, knowing there'd be no consequences because no one would remember. You never answered him. I need to know the answer to that question. Did you do anything… crazy… with me during those time loops? Something I wasn't supposed to remember?"

Jack stared at her for a long moment before answering. He glanced down at his hands, which were miraculously still throughout the conversation. "Maybe," he said slowly.

"What did you do?" Sam asked, forgetful for a moment that she didn't want the explicit explanation herself.

"Well, I…I walked into the control room, I resigned, then turned around and kissed you. Right there in front of Hammond and everyone," he said, the hint of a proud little smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"You kissed me? Even though I wouldn't remember it?"

"And yet, you do, don't you? That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Is there more?" She asked, then shook her head in disbelief.

"Sam," he said, "Are you sure you want to know?" 

"No." The answer was an automatic gut reaction, but Sam knew it was the right one. She shook her head slowly. "No," she reaffirmed more gently. "I think for now, it's enough to know it really happened. And I remember enough to know… it was very much a mutual decision."

"It really happened. And I never would have taken advantage of you. Everything we did was done with your full knowledge and consent, I swear."

"I know." Sam smiled reassuringly for him. As usual, it nearly knocked him off his seat.

"And I made a promise to you, you should know. One day, when the time is right, and God willing, it will be right one day, then I'll tell you everything, every last little detail until you remember it all as clearly as I always will."

"I'm going to hold you to that," she returned. She looked at him for a long moment. "This can't affect our working relationship," she said with grave certainty.

"It won't." He reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. "Promise," he vowed.

Sam stood up, and Jack followed suit. "Just one more thing, before I go, Jack." Jack blinked a couple times in response to her so rare use of his given name. Then she surprised him even more by turning into him. If he just brought his arms up, he would be embracing her closely. Sam reached up to cup his cheek in one hand.

"I don't quite remember that kiss well enough. Refresh my memory just this once?" Sam murmured close to his face. Jack's eyes strayed down from her eyes to her lips, and back again.

"You sure?" He sounded incredulous.

"Absolutely," she replied as she closed the final distance. Jack needed no further encouragement. His arms came up around her, surrounding her in his warmth. His mouth moved across hers, gentle and tender, until Sam darted her tongue out to taste his lips. He opened his mouth quickly in response, coaxing her into joining him in a savoring taste of one another. There was red hot desire in that kiss, but something else as well; a sense of peace, of patience, of longing, of mutual need all at once. The world around faded to black as Sam lost her breath and a little bit of her mind in this kiss. It wasn't enough, but it would have to last her through the long lonely nights ahead.


	3. Aftermath

Aftermath

By Bren Ren

-o-o-o

Sam awoke with a start.

It had been a long time since she'd had one of those dreams.

"Resigning? Why?"

"So I can do this."

She shook her head to clear the voices from her dream. Then she sighed. Her memory, she realized. She rolled over to her side to face her sleeping husband.

She decided to take a moment to savor the sight of him, as it was all too rare these days. He looked so peaceful in his sleep that she almost didn't have the heart to wake him. She closed her eyes.

His face flashed before her as it came crashing down into hers, with lips that were as warm as they were strong and sure. Her own mouth, after a moment of frozen surprise, suddenly responded with a mind of its own, opening beneath his… beneath him as he bent her backward in a low dip—

Then a white flash and nothing. She opened her eyes and looked at Jack.

He was on his side facing her, one arm curled beneath his head, the other draped lazily over her torso. Sam raised her hand up to gently stroke his cheek. When he didn't stir, she decided to try another angle of attack. She kissed him.

Sure enough, he was kissing her back momentarily, albeit sleepily.

"Mmm, what's that for?"

"I had that dream again," she told him.

"What dream?" he muttered.

"That dream you promised you'd tell me all about," Sam prodded.

Jack blinked a couple times while he wracked his sleepy brain. He had no idea what she was talking about.

"The time loop dream," she said after a few beats.

Jack's eyes slowly widened, then snapped shut as the full memories assailed him. "That dream."

"It starts with you kissing me in the control room, then it gets a little fuzzy after that. I think it's time you told me what really happened," she said firmly.

Jack rolled onto his back with a sigh. He brought his hands up to rub his eyes, giving himself a moment to put the pieces of memory together in the right order so that he could tell her the story properly.

"I tried several times to kiss you before the control room. That moment was the culmination of much effort, and no small amount of pain on my part." He paused when Sam frowned. "I couldn't get it right, you'd get defensive, shall we say, and you usually wound up hitting me. Well, slapping mostly. You got in a good right hook, once though," he mused, rubbing his jaw at the memory."

"I don't have any memory of that," she said gently. "You must have fumbled it pretty badly to get me to actually hit you."

"You have no idea," Jack said dryly. "It finally, after I don't know how many loops, dawned on me that perhaps I could get rid of the one thing that was standing between us. So I resigned right before I kissed you."

"That I remember," Sam said, recalling her shock as well. "You didn't give me any time to think, just to react."

"And you did, finally, react in my favor." Jack had that smug, slightly proud grin on his face; the one that Sam was sure had prompted her memories in the first place.

Her curiosity as to what Jack had gotten up to while stuck in a time loop for over three months consumed her, until she found herself dreaming about Jack for several weeks. It took her that long to work up the courage to talk to him about it.

She shook her head with a smile. She didn't have to worry about that much any more. He was her husband, had been for nearly two years. One of the first things they agreed to work on together was their communication. And since they were so rarely together in a physical sense these days, it made the time they did have together so much more precious; they found themselves sharing everything.

At Sam's smile, Jack continued, in full story-teller mode now. "I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that you'd finally responded, that you kissed me back, so I decided to risk a little more. That's when I dragged you into a storage closet, told you about the time loop, and kissed you for all I was worth. And once again, to my surprise, it actually worked. You kissed me back."

"Well, of course I did," Sam interposed. "I knew I'd forget all about it. Except that I didn't. But I didn't know that I would remember." Sam finished with a slightly confused expression.

"No, but we both knew that I'd remember," Jack said. "I asked you to join me off base, and you agreed. So I took you to a little cabin in the woods."

"I knew it wasn't your cabin!" Sam exclaimed quietly.

Jack laughed. "No, it would have taken us more than the entire loop to get there. We didn't have access to the Asgard transporters in those days." This time, Sam laughed. Jack continued, "Anyway, I took you out to a cabin in the woods, with complete and total privacy, and we talked."

"We talked?" Sam asked incredulously. "You and I, we talked? Then poster children of miscommunications on a personal level, we managed to have an honest to goodness conversation about the… the state of the union?"

"Yes, we did. You don't have to act so surprised. We were each pretty damn good at communications on the professional level, and look how well we're doing now!"

Sam sighed. "I'll concede your points, this time."

"So we talked. About the state of the union, as you put it. We each made a couple of things clear. Being unwilling to compromise SG1 for the sake of a personal relationship neither of us was ready for, for one thing, and for another, your full awareness and consent to taking advantage of a 'once in a lifetime opportunity'—your words, my dear."

"I'm sorry," Sam laughed, "I can't believe I used such a corny cliché."

"That's quite all right," Jack replied. "Anyway, the point is, you agreed, and then I made that promise to tell you all about it when the time was right. And then, we made love."

"Oh, I remember the love making part pretty clearly," Sam informed him. "That's what I kept dreaming about when the time loops stopped."

"Good dreams, then?" Jack asked with a wolfish grin.

"Very disturbing dreams. But in a good way." Sam looked at Jack for a long quiet moment. "So, is that all?"

"Pretty much. The loops stopped shortly after that round, and the rest I'm sure you also remember pretty clearly."

"Thanks for telling me, Jack."

"Of course." Jack rolled over to his side once more, his hand coming up to clasp the back of Sam's neck. He pulled her close and kissed her soundly. "So, now that you've thoroughly disturbed my sleep, perhaps you'd like to carry this to its natural conclusion." Jack kissed her again before she could reply.

Sam savored his kisses, relishing this time that they could spend together. She in turn explored every detail of his mouth with her own, imprinting in her memory every sensation, every feeling evoked. Soon hands were exploring, too, and legs were entangling together, until you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. They loved one another into the morning hours, and then watched the earliest rays of sun start peeking through the bedroom windows. It would never be enough, but it would always get them through the lonely nights ahead. They had each other, and so life was good.


End file.
